Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Contemporary mosquito control includes strong surveillance-based programs, use of biological control, source reduction as a first choice, improved targeted applications for control of adult mosquitoes, an increased focus on larviciding, and specific biology-based control methods. Within the last 50 years, dengue has become a global problem, and more recently, chikungunya epidemics have occurred in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Americas. Dengue and chikungunya viruses are vectored by the container mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. This special issue will include original research articles and reviews by medical entomologists, mosquito biologists, and mosquito control managers. Articles will focus on the biology and ecology of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, and on modern methods for the control of container mosquitoes.

Prof. Dr. C. Roxanne ConnellyGuest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs).
English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

Abstract: Florida (USA), particularly the southern portion of the State, is in a precarious situation concerning arboviral diseases. The geographic location, climate, lifestyle, and the volume of travel and commerce are all conducive to arbovirus transmission. During the last decades, imported dengue cases have been regularly recorded in Florida, and the recent re-emergence of dengue as a major public health concern in the Americas has been accompanied by a steady increase in the number of imported cases. In 2009, there were 28 cases of locally transmitted dengue in Key West, and in 2010, 65 cases were reported. Local transmission was also reported in Martin County in 2013 (29 cases), and isolated locally transmitted cases were also reported from other counties in the last five years. Dengue control and prevention in the future will require close cooperation between mosquito control and public health agencies, citizens, community and government agencies, and medical professionals to reduce populations of the vectors and to condition citizens and visitors to take personal protection measures that minimize bites by infected mosquitoes.

Abstract: Aedes vigilax (Skuse), a nuisance and disease vector, is prolific in intertidal wetlands in Australia. Aedine mosquitoes oviposit directly onto substrate. The eggshells are relatively stable spatially and temporally, providing an estimate of mosquito larval production. The aims of the research were to compare, at a general level, oviposition in mangroves and saltmarshes, and to compare oviposition between different habitats within mangroves and saltmarshes. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between production in mangrove and saltmarsh overall. However, within each system there were significant differences between habitat classes, with mangrove hummocks being the most productive. All classes, except for fringing mangrove forests, produced sufficient densities of eggshells (>0.05/cc) to warrant concern. While mosquito production in mangroves is known, the significantly higher production rates in the mangrove hummock habitats had not been demonstrated. This warrants improved management strategies that both specifically target these parts of mangrove systems and, secondly, addresses the longer-term potential for mangrove hummock habitats developing in the future; such as, in response to sea level rise and mangrove encroachment into saltmarsh. A strategy to increase tidal flushing within the systems would improve water quality and mitigate adverse impacts while providing a source reduction outcome.

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these
manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers
submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Type of Paper: Review Title: The Salivary Biomarkers in the Control of Mosquito-Borne Diseases. Author: Souleymane Doucoure 1 and Papa Makhtar Drame 2Affiliations: 1 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement: Unité de Recherche Maladies Infectieuses Tropicales Emergentes, Campus IRD-UCAD, Route des Pères Maristes, BP 1386 Dakar-Sénégal, France; E-Mail: souleymane.doucoure@ird.fr2 Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; E-Mail: papa.drame@nih.govAbstract: Vector control remains the most effective measure to control and to prevent the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases. However, the standard entomological methods used to evaluate the human exposure to mosquito bites and the effectiveness of control strategies are indirect, labor intensive, and lack of sensitivity in low exposure/transmission areas, thus limiting their widespread use. Studying the human antibody response against the mosquito salivary proteins has provided new biomarkers for a direct and accurate evaluation of the human exposure to mosquito bites, at community and individual levels. In this review, we discuss the development, applications and limit of these biomarkers applied to the control of Aedes and Anopheles-borne diseases.

Type of Paper: ReviewTitle: Fighting Arbovirus Transmission: Natural and Genetic Control Strategies in Aedes MosquitoesAuthors: Joy Kean, Stephanie M. Rainey, Melanie McFarlane, Esther Schnettler, Alain Kohl and Emilie PondevilleAffiliation: MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; Emails: Joy.Kean@glasgow.ac.uk; Stephanie.Rainey@glasgow.ac.uk; Melanie.McDonald@glasgow.ac.uk; Esther.Schnettler@glasgow.ac.uk; Alain.Kohl@glasgow.ac.uk; Emilie.Pondeville@glasgow.ac.ukAbstract: Control of Aedes mosquito vectors either by mosquito population reduction or replacement with refractory mosquitoes may play an essential role in the fight against arboviral infectious diseases. In this review, we focus on the development and application of natural and genetic approaches to limit mosquito arboviral vectorial capacities. The study of mosquito antiviral immunity has led to the identification of a number of host response mechanisms and proteins that are required to control arbovirus transmission in mosquitoes, though more factors influencing vector competence are likely to be discovered. We discuss key aspects of these pathways and targets either for selection of naturally resistant mosquito populations or for mosquito genetic manipulation. Besides, we consider the use of endosymbiotic bacteria such as Wolbachia, which have been proven remarkably efficient in some cases to disrupt arbovirus transmission by mosquitoes, but also the use of natural occurring insect specific viruses that may interfere with arboviruses in mosquito vectors.